Investigation of growth, yield and water use efficiency of different grain corn cultivars under furrow and drip irrigation methods (type)

Selecting the appropriate cultivar of corn and providing efficient irrigation methods in order to increase water productivity and production per unit area for optimal use of water resources in agriculture is of great importance. In this study, it was tried to evaluate and compare between drip irrigation methods (type) and furrow irrigation on 20 cultivars of maize cultivars in order to determine the most appropriate irrigation method and the best cultivar compatible with the region in order to increase yield and water use efficiency. Also reduce the amount of water consumed.

This experiment was conducted to investigate the growth, yield and water use efficiency of different corn cultivars as split plots based on a randomized complete block design with three replications in the tropical city of Dehloran in 2021. The main plots included irrigation management with two methods of drip irrigation (type) and furrow irrigation and the sub-plots included 20 varieties of corn. Vegetative traits including plant height were measured by meters, stem diameter, flag leaf area, number of cob rows, number of seeds per row and 1000-seed weight. Finally, after drying the plants, biological yield and grain yield were weighed using a digital scale. Water use efficiency was also calculated based on biological yield.

The results showed that cultivars 704 (122.3 days), BK74 (123.5 days) were known as early cultivars and NS640 (129.8 days), 89MAY70 (129.5 days) were known as late corn cultivars. Conserv cultivars (242.5 cm), 704 (225.2 cm) had the highest plant height. The highest leaf area of ​​flag was observed in cultivars AGN820 (279.5 cm2), AGN837 (274 cm2). Also, Conserv (3.33 cm), Barakat 3 (3.32 cm) cultivars had the largest stem diameter. The lowest plant height in BK66CTM cultivars (214 cm), BK65 (216.7 cm), the lowest stem diameter in BK66CTM cultivars (2.8 cm) and the lowest flag leaf area in 89MAY70 cultivars (199.2 cm2) and BC678 (199.7 cm2) were observed. Highest grain yield in cultivars AGN823 (9866.67 kg.ha-1), KSC703 (9760 kg.ha-1), AGN824 (9653.33 kg.ha-1) and lowest grain yield in BK66-CTM cultivars (5937.78 kg.ha-1) and Simon LF (6257.78 kg.ha-1) were observed, cultivars 704 with 348 g and AGN822 with AGN822 with 356.67 g had the lowest 1000-seed weight and cultivars AGN823 with 400.83, AGN824 with 393.33 g, AGN816 and Simon LF (394.17 g) had the highest 1000-seed weight, 1000-seed weight was higher in type irrigation method compared to furrow irrigation. AGN824 cultivars with 24808.87 kg.ha-1 had the highest biological yield and BK66CTM cultivars with 17644 kg.ha-1 had the lowest biological yield. the mean grain yield in type irrigation (9152 kg.ha-1) compared to the average grain yield in furrow irrigation (7980 kg.ha-1) has increased by about 14.7%. The amount of water consumption in the drip method (5966.7 m3.ha-1) compared to the amount of water consumption in the furrow method (8950 m3.ha-1) decreased by 3.3 3 shows. The effect of drip irrigation and furrow management methods on water productivity based on biological yield showed that water efficiency based on biological yield in strip drip irrigation method is equal to 3.65 kg.m3 and in furrow irrigation method is 2.25 kg.m3. Which indicates a 62.2% advantage of water efficiency in the drip strip method over the furrow method.

The general results of this study indicate the superiority of drip irrigation and the introduction of cultivars for cultivation in the tropics. The strip drip irrigation method, considering the reduction in the volume of water consumption, showed a significant increase in the yield and yield components of the corn plant. Strip drip irrigation with lower water consumption was able to produce more performance compared to leak irrigation. The strip drip irrigation method reduced irrigation water by 33.34% compared to the leak irrigation method.